My Monthly Subscriber Rate Jumped 666% In 6 Months – How A-List BloggingBootcamp Brought Readers To My Site
My name is Steven Aitchison and I started a blog in August 2006 called Change Your Thoughts. I had a rough idea that it was going to be about self development, but I kinda ran out of ideas after a few weeks, and wrote about crazy things like Tips To Reduce Farting (seriously I did). Thankfully I found my groove and kept on with the blogging slowly building up a loyal list of people who followed me.† At the same time I was working full time, and also doing something called affiliate marketing.
Skip ahead three years and I was posting to the blog once per week and had built up a subscriber base of 3,200 readers and averaged around 16 comments per post.† I was still trying to run around 20 or so websites with my affiliate stuff.† Then it hit me, the one constant to me enjoying my life online was writing, and writing for the blog.† I dropped everything else and decided I was going to take blogging seriously.† I looked around for other bloggers who were crushing it and one stood out: Leo Babauta.
Myself and Leo had actually met and spoke to each a few years before as we were part of a †Personal Blog Network who helped each other with social bookmarking and giving advice.† We both had around 200 subscribers at the time (actually I had about 240 and Leo had 190 
).† I wrote an email to the group and asked for some feedback on my blog and here is what Leo wrote:
That email 3 years ago
Sent: 09/03/2007 07:56 (9th March 2007)
Hi Steven,
Great question. I think that’s something we all grapple with. I’m new to the blogging game, so I should probably just listen to other responses on this one, but my philosophy is to just jump in, so here I go!
You asked for honesty, so please brace yourself.
What has worked for me so far, and has gotten me some early success, isn’t related so much to promotion (although I’ve tried various methods with mixed success), but to content. The biggest revelation to me, and it came early on (in the first week), was that what people really want is *useful* stuff. The self-promotional stuff, the stuff about what you did today, the stuff about what you think †about this national issue or that celebrity, that’s interesting, but it’s not what they want to tune in to, day in and day out. They are looking for a regular source of useful information (at least, the people who come to my site are looking for that).
So my formula is simple: I think about what I want to know, and what would be useful to me, and write about that. I’ve searched the web countless hours looking for useful articles about productivity, motivation, goals, habits, exercise, healthy eating, finances, and the like, so that’s what I write about. And not just general abstract concepts, but real, useful, practical advice, based on my reading and my real experiences. I share my mistakes and what I’ve learned, so others don’t make that same mistake.
Once you’ve got that down, there are a few other things that help me:
* concise, catchy headlines — people read this stuff in a feed reader, so they only actually read †articles with headlines that catch their attention as interesting or useful
* concise information that easily highlights info they can use — people skim through articles, instead of reading it like a book, and like to read stuff in lists, or in bolded sentences that catch their eye
* links that take them to more useful stuff about the topic
OK, that might be obvious, but let’s take a quick look at your site’s front page. Here are the headlines:
Global warming – A politicians dream
MyBlogLog Love 7th March 2007
This weeks star post 5th March 2007
2000 bloggers social experiment: The results
MyBlogLog love 1st March 2007
The process of a dream
This weeks star post 26th February 2007
Tagged – Why I blog
Oprah Winfrey – ‘The secret’
MyBlogLog community love
Now let me be brutally honest, and go over each headline with the two criteria of 1) usefulness and 2) concise and interesting headlines — my remarks are in parentheses:
Global warming – A politicians dream (not useful, but interesting)
MyBlogLog Love 7th March 2007 (neither)
This weeks star post 5th March 2007 (neither)
2000 bloggers social experiment: The results (interesting, and useful
to bloggers)
MyBlogLog love 1st March 2007 (neither)
The process of a dream (vague, kinda interesting, not useful)
This weeks star post 26th February 2007 (neither)
Tagged – Why I blog (neither)
Oprah Winfrey – ‘The secret’ (interesting, not really useful)
MyBlogLog community love (neither)
OK, I’m sorry if that was harsh, but I wanted to illustrate my points:
1) You have some interesting articles (global warming, dreams, The Secret, and especially the 2000 bloggers), but they would be better if refocused on how they can be useful to people
2) The headlines need to be refocused on being useful and interesting
3) You have too many meta-posts about MyBlogLog, Why I blog, and This Week’s Star Post (you can’t tell if this Star Post will be interesting from the home page, and thus you would have to click on the “more” link to find out, but you wouldn’t click unless you already thought it was interesting)
Steven, I think you have a good blog, but you’re looking to improve readership, so I thought I’d give my analysis … I hope it’s been more useful than harsh. Also, remember that I’m a new blogger — I could be completely wrong, so please take all this with a grain of salt.
Good luck!
Leo Babauta
And he had only been blogging a few months, I wished I had listened back then, but truth be told I had 50 more subscribers than Leo so I must have been better than him (how naive )
August 2009
So when I heard that Leo and Mary Jaksch were running a bootcamp I jumped right in and thought it was a bit serendipitous that I had found out about it just at the right time I was looking for a course like this.
I paid the course fees, electing to spread them over 3 months and attended all the 10 days bootcamps.
The Bootcamp
I loved the format of the bootcamp, mainly a video chat with Leo talking about a specific topic each day and giving us a PDF beforehand and some homework we had to do, yes there was homework.
I devoured all of the PDFs and started putting into practice what I was learning.† The main points that really hit home with me were:
Headline Writing
Guest Posting
Psychology of subscribing
The other amazing thing I took from the Bootcamp were the people on the course.† I have met and stayed in touch with most of the A-Listers in the club who were in my niche and have worked with some of them on my own blog.
The day my blog changed
My blog changed when I signed up for a critique from Leo and Mary and they were honest and to the point.† Within 2 weeks I changed my theme altogether and changed the look of the blog to its current state and I have never looked back.† (If you get the chance, do not be shy about your blog, put it up for a critique).
I also got a lot of comments from others in the forum which was also a big plus.† The forums are a great place to hang out, ask questions and help people when you can, believe me you will meet and befriend some great people on this bootcamp and it’s worht getting stuck in and helping as many people as you can and asking as many questions as you can, you won’t get another chance like it.
My blog today
www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog
Subscribers: 7,301
Average comments: 43
Due to the success of writing a post for zenhabits.net and writing for other blogs as well as my own I am now a paid freelance writer (part time) for:
www.dumblittleman.com
www.lifesnips.com
www.dialecticmagazine.com
I have also self published 5 books:
100 ways to Find Ideas for your blog posts (Available on Amazon in the next week)
Making friends: 8 Steps to making friends quickly and easily (availabel on Amazon in the next week)
37 Ways to communicate with your sons (available on Amazon in the next 2 weeks)
So, you see I have not only improved my blog beyond measure I have improved my life beyond measure.
I sincerely hope you enjoy the bootcamp and learn as much as I have learned, and I considered myself a blogging veteran (there’s always something new to learn).
Good luck!
Note from Leo and Mary: We’ve decided to only take 150 participants for this Bootcamp in order to be able to give personal attention. If you want to create a blog that rocks, click HERE. Places are going fast…
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This looks very interesting! Something I’ll definitely think about as I’m a great fan of zen habits!
From all these “case studies”, as much as I like Leo’s blog, it seems the bootcamps is geared strictly for “how to” or “informational”,blogs – but there is little to be learned to help literary blogs, outside of writing great content and catchy headlines….it would be really interesting if there was something that could help those of us who write personal or literary blogs.
I’m going to apply Leo’s suggestions to you specifically to my blog to see if any of what I write measures up to his constructive criticism. I love to write, have plenty of ideas (my life is a great source of ideas) and am both jazzed and overwhelmed by all the suggestions being thrown out in the lead-up to Leo’s and Mary’s Blogging Bootcamp.Hard to know where to start. Like you ended up doing right at the start, I fear I’m due for a make-over and/or split between the two concepts I address on my blog which is focused on maintaining my happiness while raising special needs twins (with Down syndrome). For me — the two are inextricably intertwined… that’s why I began my blog the way I did. I think there are a lot of people in my shoes who find it hard to do both. I’d love it if you would take a look (http://walkonthehappyside.blogspot.com) and do for me what Leo did for you back then… offer your constructive criticism… if you have the time.
Unfortunately, right now,other life challenges including a critical juncture in the education of my young children with special needs and attending to an elderly parent with special needs, are taking priority in my life (good topics to write about and offer tips to others walking in my shoes). Posting is nearly all I can manage (hopefully with better, more interesting and useful content and catchier headlines). Alas, the bootcamp is not to be for me this go-around… I hope they offer it again during the summer (are you reading Mary and Leo?) when things settle down for a blogging Mom like me. For now, I’m going to go visit your blog, Steven, for an After shot to my Before shot and then apply the oh-so-simple advice as a starting point. Thanks for sharing this with us.
I’m totally new to this whole scene, so (honestly) take my comments with a big pinch of salt, preferably Himalayan Mountain Salt.
This was the most useful case study so far leading up to the A List Bootcamp. Your story is really inspirational and rings true. 7000 odd subscribers sounds like a lot, but…
(I’m a critic so plse forgive me in advance) How many do you have to have to be employed full time by the blog i.e. not have to do freelance writing? Or is the freelance writing more choice than necessity?
For me I’m not into freelancing writing unless it was to directly promote my bog.
On a personal note I’ve got no idea whether I have a decent blogging proposition, but I suppose that’s a story for another day. Anyway I’m toying with joining the boot camp and your post was helpful.
Excellent post Steven. Inspirational even. I’m going to share this post with my blogging community, and use your insight to improve my own personal blog (glennfriesen.com).
So, open community, considering Steven’s advice about inviting others to review a blog, would you leave me feedback about my company blog http://impactlearning.com/blog ? I set up a Google Docs form for that feedback here, special for this comment: http://bit.ly/a9plkg
Steven, thanks again for sharing this. Truly, helpful content like this is rare (so too, folks like Leo!). Sincere thanks!
This really was a very helpful case study, thank you!! Well Anastasiya’s was good as well. I want to do this boot camp, but I just don’t have a blog yet, so I’d rather take it when I actually have something to critique and work on during the course. My biggest problem is FINDING a topic to blog about! I just don’t feel like i know enough about anything to put myself out as an “authority” on the topic. Is there anywhere I can maybe find help in THIS area that someone knows of? Maybe this is covered in the bootcamp (though I doubt it)?
Thanks!
Steven,
That is really inspirational! I am signed up for the Bootcamp and can’t wait to have my blog ripped to shreds by Leo and Mary and everyone else! It is humbling to see all of the great blogs out there in Blogland. But I am determined to be an A-Lister!
Thanks for the great post!
Barrie
Jodi — I kinda agree, but I guess it comes down to your niche. These case studies have all been on blogs that share a somewhat similar vein to Zen Habits, or at least how I see it. They apply to a general audience and have a large appeal.
My blog, on the other hand, is in a very tiny niche, appeals to the larger niche my niche is in, and is for entertainment while also being somewhat informative. I figure out what works and what doesn’t by trying things out and mostly from seeing what other bloggers in my bigger niche do.
I don’t try to copy, but I will adapt successful techniques and put my own style into it. (Really what it’s all about — readers read your blog because of the content, but they will also stick around for style and for yourself.)
60 000 visitors in 48 hours… for one post
I hope my experience will prove useful. And I definitely hope for some feedback and advice from fellow bloggers.
I launched my self-help blog at the end of December 2009. I had already written and published 20-something posts before the « opening night ». I had VERY few visitors, but I wanted to take my time in terms of promotion strategies. Ten days later, for no particular reason, I submitted one of the posts to Reddit. The post’s headline : « Boost Your Productivity With Hemingway’s Hack ». Ten minutes later I checked Sitemeter. It showed 1,500 visitors for the « last hour ». My first thought was that something was wrong : there is no such thing as 1,5 visitor, c’mon, a visitor and a half ?
To make a short story shorter, the first hour I had 5 000+visitors from Reddit ; 23 000 visitors in 6 hours, 30 000 visitors within the next 24 hours. All in all there were 60 000+ visitors for this post in 48 hours. Everybody stumbled it, twitted it, facebooked it, quoted it on blogs and forums. Programmers, teachers, writers recommended it, self-help bloggers recommended it, Wired linked to it, Alyssa Milano linked to it…
Leo Babauta linked to it (on zenhabits.tumblr.com).
I was not prepared for this. I couldn’t sleep for 2 nights in a row thinking of all those people visiting my blog while I was in bed (85% came from North America, I live in Paris, France). I know the headline was great ; I also know this is now coined as « Hemingway’s hack » and that all the credit goes to… Hemingway, of course. But I also know that « Reddit visitors » are of the « click and go » kind.
Today I am back to 2 000 visitors/week. But while the number of visitors went down, the visit length, the number of page views and (most important) of subscribers went up. So when I write a post my first thought goes to my subscribers and to all those who use Google Search hoping for a solution to their problems or for a « voice » telling them they’re not alone. And this boosts MY productivity.
But… the 90% of the visitors still come for… Hemingway’s Hack. I’m beginning to hate that post ! And I really wonder how other bloggers would have reacted to this sudden traffic « boost ». In terms of promotion and content.
Thank you all for your feedback and thank you Steve (and Leo) for your extremely useful case study.
The more I read the more I’m convinced that this is the right time to take action. I signed up for the bootcamp the first thing Monday morning. I’m really looking forward to it.
Thank you Steven for sharing your experience!
I’ve really been enjoying these case studies, since I’m on the brink of rockin’ out my new blog soon. Thanks, Leo! Pick me for your bootcamp, puhleeeeezzz. I’m a victim of the demise of newspapers, so I’m using a decade’s worth of experience as a reporter and freelance writer to start my own website. You’ve become by blogging guru. You rock!
Hi everyone – and especially Jodi,
Bootcamp participants inhabit all kinds of niches- not just self-development.
The principles of creating a professional blog really transcend the choice of blog topic. Whether you want to write a personal blog, or blog about creative writing, or about cooking, or about the mating habits of palm-pit vipers – if you want to attract a readership, you need to know how to present your material in an attractive way.
Well, maybe there are some bloggers who don’t want subscribers … but in that case, they could just write in a notebook at home, right?
@Betsy – Thanks for the comments Betsy, Leo and Mary are running a great course here.
@jodi sh doff – Thanks for commenting Jodi. The bootcamp is not for any particular niche, as it can be adapted to any niche. The makings of a great blog runs across all niches and there are certain characteristics which a blog and blogger will need to have in order to succeed.
@Maggie Mae – You little chancer
I will certainly take a look at you blog and give you feedback.
@Stephen – Thanks for your comments Stephen. I am not actually a full time blogger, I am a full time addiction worker and the blog and the writing is a part time pursuit but hopefully looking to make it full time. I have learned over the 3 years blogging that in order to monetise the blog I have to build up a following and trust ‘become a ‘Trust Agent’ as Chris Brogan says. I learned the hard way and tried to monetise the blog from the start and made a few dollars here and there which put a lot of readers off. Now I have had to work my way back and really earn the respect and trust of readers. In July I will be launching a product that will hopefully ensure that I am able to make blogging my full time job. Hope that answers your question Stephen.
@Marrianney – If you’re not ready for the course then I wouldn’t do it if I were you. However, it sounds like you are teetering toward blogging and that’s a great thing. Ask yourself – What Do I love doing? What would I do for free if I could? It could be writing about the TV series ‘Lost’, it could be writing about how your fashion, it could be collating information from around the web about college football and becoming the number one source for college football info with a twist 0f Marrianey in with it
. You can blog about anything but make sure you love the subject, because one day you could make it big.
@Barrie – Thanks for the comments Barrie. Determination will take you a long way, Leo and Mary will take you the extra step
@Meg – Hi Meg, you are in a fantastic position to absolutely Crush It with your blog. You have two things going for you, well two obvious things: Fanatic readers and the fact that you are female, now that’s not being sexist but you don’t expect a female to be talking about car tuning and racing. You could kill the niche you’re in and make the blog huge if you were up for it and know your stuff.
@Tessa – What a great story Tessa and a really useful one as well. If you are going on the course you will learn exactly what to do about your Hemingway post, and I mean exactly. Two extremely useful tips you can use just now 1) Put a list of your top 5 posts on the top right hand side of your blog, above the fold where you currently have
* subscribe !
* recent articles
* recent comments
* archive
You can change this later and Leo and Mary will let you know why. Leverage what you have instead of seeing it as a curse
2) Put the ‘related posts’ plugin into your blog so whenever someone comes to the Hemingway post they will see other great articles from you, so leverage the Hemingway post.
@Manal – I really hope you enjoy the experience and it will be great to see your blog come alive.
@Fran – you’ll love the course and having a background in writing will help.
Thank you Steven. I really appreciate the tips! I’m getting there! Maybe I’ll have a blog out there by the time Bootcamp #3 rolls around!
Think: Useful, interesting, useful, interesting. Focus, focus, focus:) Beautiful, simple advice. Thank you Steven and Leo for sending you that email. Lucky you didn’t delete it:)
Steven,
Great info and approach. I say ditto to many of the comments. But in the spirit of Leo’s honesty, even brutality, let me call you out on something that you wrote above and that I see and hear misused frequently these days. You wrote: “Myself and Leo had actually met and spoke to each a few years …..” (I assume you meant “each other,” but that’s a simple omission and not the point I’m making. Although I’m amazed at how many blogs I see from professionals who apparently don’t proofread.)
In recent years, I’ve noticed that many people are misusing “myself” in places and ways that are simply wrong. Professional athletes especially. You can’t use “myself” as a subject in a sentence. The proper way to say that is, “Leo and I had actually met …” I almost didn’t finish reading your post when I saw that. My thought was, “why read this guy if he mangles the English language?” I know that blogs are more informal and many rules of writing are not followed as closely as they would be in a newspaper or book. But that misuse of “myself” screams out at me and many others (I’ve had this conversation with friends who also hate that misuse).
For a quick, clear understanding of how and when to use reflexive pronouns like myself, himself, themselves, etc. take a look at what “Grammar Girl” has to say about it. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/me-myself-and-I.aspx
Again, please forgive me for acting as if I’m captain of the language police, but it just really bothered me. I appreciate very much what you had to say — other than that — and I look forward to reading more of your work. I hope to have my blog up soon, and I’ll be open to your suggestions and criticisms because you have a lot more experience.
P. S. In this sentence, you used “myself” correctly: “I sincerely hope you enjoy the bootcamp and learn as much as I have learned, and I considered myself a blogging veteran (there’s always something new to learn).”
And Marianney used it properly in her comment: “I just don’t feel like i know enough about anything to put myself out as an “authority” on the topic.”
@Annabel – Thanks for the comments Annabel I do appreciate them.
@Don – the thing about blogging is that it’s got to be authentic, I write how I speak, and I don’t pretend to write perfect English. Just like yourself when you have, presumably, omitted many commas which should be in place in your comments to show us how not to write a comment. Thanks for your comments I do appreciate them and your link was helpful.
Hi Guys, Leo, Mary, Steven,
I live in Romania. I cannot attend your event in the States. I cannot afford yet. However, what’s very important to me is that I take the 3 Leo’s suggestions about a headline
1. Be concise
2. Useful
3. Interesting
If I provide links into the articles make sure that I point the readers to something more useful and interesting.
Thank you guys with all my heart,
i
@Povesti – Hi, thanks for the comments. The training is online, done via interaction via video, forums, emails, and downloads, there is no need to actually go to the US.
@Steven Are you kidding me?
How much does it cost?
@Povesti –
It is $285 but you can get $50 off if you buy it from http://www.stevenaitchison.co.uk/blog/2010/02/08/a-list-blogging-bootcamp-with-leo-babauta-now-open/
Hope that helps
Hi Steven,
It sure helps a lot. I still have a few questions to you. Your answers could help me decide to participate. Can I have your email address to my email ioan (at) inspiredachievement (dot) ro?
Thank you with all my heart and I appreciate your patience.
Steven,
I and myself (I really had fun reading Don Parker’s comment + your answer on the misuse of “myself”), so I and myself are very grateful to you and yourself for having visited my blog and for your valuable advice.
I will definitely “leverage what I have”. I’ve been blogging for 3 years (music blog, political blog) before launching this self help blog and I’m still learning something new every day. Why ? Because I WANT to learn something new every day.
Fortunately there is no such thing as a “perfect” blog. There is no such thing as a “perfect” writer either. Imperfection is at the core of progress. Perfection is at the core of inertia. And inertia = death of creativity.
All the best to all of you & yourselves (in this very imperfect and very creative world) !
@Tessa, I loved your comment
thanks for making my day.
Thank you ! Have a great blogging week.
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